


Fake Hero

by Midas2040



Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms, Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Abuse of Authority, Anal Sex, Boys' Love, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Mello and Matt are rivals, Orphanage, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Self-Harm, Sexual Content, Wammy House
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 20:31:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16899405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midas2040/pseuds/Midas2040
Summary: "The way we met could not have been more unique. I do not believe in the idiocy of fate, but if I ever doubted it, it was the only day. "Mello was only a child when he met Matt, another child who fled his former orphanage in search of welfare. He believes he has found the perfect opportunity and takes advantage of Matt to show others that they are wrong in pointing him out as selfish and haughty. Mello takes him with him to his new home, which is not a common orphanage. But his initial objective vanishes as time goes on and he begins to know what people usually call friendship and possibly something else.





	Fake Hero

**Author's Note:**

> ~Hey! First of all:  
> This is a translated story, it's mine, but I translated it into English for a friend, originally it's dedicated to her.  
> I want you to let me know where there are grammatical errors and thus correct them for a better reading. Thanks in advance :)

The way we met couldn’t have been more unique. I don’t believe in the idiocy of fate, but if I ever doubted it, it was precisely the only day.

It was an autumn afternoon. I wore a wool hat, a thick red coat and my backpack where I kept the notebooks. The backpack was not necessarily for them, because I could carry them in arms; it was for the meal that I planned to have all afternoon while I was studying. On the market I had bought what I wanted, especially anything that had chocolate.

Two hours before I had escaped from the orphanage. Roger, the director, didn't even bother to send reinforcements to look for me every time I fled, instead, when I came to the house, all he did was ask me where I had been and send me to sleep as usual. The old man wasn’t stupid, so if I tried to cheat him when I answered, it did not help, he knew the environment better than me, so I always told him the truth. In one way or another, I never fled so far, at most escape two kilometers from the orphanage round.

 

After getting away enough, I arrived at a very large park. I had never been in it. It was almost empty, there were few people in the distance. I inspected where the most comfortable space could be and ended up near a few worn-out benches next to a small lake. I took out a chocolate bar from my pocket and gave it a few bites. I left the backpack on the bench and before taking my notes I tried to imagine that there was no one to bother me and I went for a walk around the lake. I would go back when the bar ran out, as I kept a couple more reserves. At that age I didn't want to consider myself a chocolate maniac, but I was aware that it was what I loved most in the universe. That's why at the Wammy's House they never brought back chocolate-covered cakes on holidays, they ended up very fast and my addiction gave me away. Also for the remains that were left in my shirt sleeve when I cleaned the chocolate from my mouth. It was impossible for me to lie about it.

 

The chocolate had run out, I crumpled the wrapper and threw it into a nearby trash can. I turned around and thought I saw something move in the place where I had abandoned my backpack. Immediately I started walking, but I didn’t run, I thought it could be an animal, or worse, a stupid thief and I wanted to catch him by surprise. I decided it was better if I showed up from behind, so I hid in the trees and continued to approach.

When I was close enough to distinguish him, I knew it wasn't really a thief even though he was eating everything I had just bought for my lonely picnic. It was a youngster, and he didn't look very well, he was disheveled and very thin. I didn't feel the blood boiling like when someone usually takes my things without my authorization. I put aside my previous plan and left the bushes without hesitation and asked dryly:

“What do you think you're doing? That's mine.”

Surprised, he turned his face towards me. He remained silent with pleading eyes before my hard expression. Due to the discomfort he began to speak.

“Forgive me ... I'm very hungry and I didn’t see anyone here ... that's why I thought mayb...”

"Didn't it occur to you that the owner would come back?"

"I really didn't have bad intentions." He clutched the backpack to his stomach, as if he had a mouth in his stomach and was going to swallow all that was left to devour.

I took another look. He was dirty, and it looked like he had not changed his clothes for days, maybe weeks. It generated compassion, but I didn't allow it to be noticed and I continued acting arrogantly. I approached to the knapsack and tried to take it from him and I didn't even have to use force, he was so weak that, if I had pulled a little more, I would have ripped his arms out.

“Give it back to me.”

"Please look at me," he said in a broken voice. "I have not eaten in four whole days and the last time I did I barely tasted a donut ..."

I wasn’t going to leave him hungry and I did not necessarily want to be cruel, even though I was being cruel. I have horrible defects and I like to get over people, but not weak people, I'm not an idiot coward, but those who show me that they fight for what they want. In this case that boy who used the miserable strength that remained since his last fast. I wanted to know to what extent he would insist.

“It was thrown outside a restaurant. He lamented”

“Are you trying to blackmail me? You're stealing, you know?”

He dropped the backpack, put his hands to his face and began to sob in silence, but then it was the turn of his guts, demanding and claiming for some mercy.

I waited a minute, two minutes ... and I began to think what the probability of finding myself in that situation would have been. I gave a long sigh.

“I'm behaving like an idiot. Listen out.” I left the backpack on his legs. “It's all yours. It always was, I just wanted to see your persistence. I'm sorry for what I made you feel.” I said without changing my tone of voice.

He removed his hands from his face, I observed that he was very indignant and humiliated. I approached the small lake, I took a handkerchief from my back pocket and moistened it, then I turned to the boy. I knelt in front of him and took his hands. He made no move to leave or move away and I wiped his hands with the damp handkerchief.

"It makes me sick that people do not take care of their brats.” He looked up, he was glaring at me with a little anger, but it just made me laugh.

“Now you hate me?”

No answer except his stomach surely cursing me.

I took the backpack to take out an antibacterial gel and applied it to his hands. I felt like I was cleaning the hands of a mannequin. He had not made any movement, but he wasn’t glaring at me anymore, he was confused, and saw instinctively how I was rubbing the handkerchief again. I still didn’t see any signs of him to want to talk. I tried to break his tension.

“Where did you come from? You're so thin that if a burst comes right now, it will return you where you came from.”

It was a rhetorical question, I expected him to remain angry and put his hands away to take the backpack running and not return.

“I have no idea where I am, I fled from that place and my current condition is not very different from what I had there.”

“What is «that place» supposed to be? What will your parents be thinking?”

He shrugged and smiled for a second.

“My parents? I do not know.” He withdrew his hands.

There I realized.

“An orphan? ...” Neither affirmed nor denied it.

I sat on the bench, but not very close. He swallowed his pride and began to register the backpack again and ate what he lacked. I waited for him to end. It didn’t take him long to eat the crepes or the fruit and while he was eating I averted the eyes. He ate grotesquely fast and I started to feel terrible for denying food to someone who was practically dying.

“It was just a place to commit suicide.”

It's funny when people used the term suicide to refer to annoying situations.

“How? Ha! You just said something detestable. Thank goodness you cannot give me another impression anymore. You're just a brat, you're probably my age...”

“The attendants were not strictly bad people, but the food wasn't enough, and I had to share a dormitory with nine other children and sleep in a hard and very small bed. There wasn’t much space to recreate, boredom overwhelms and the only thing that is saved from that absurd and tortuous place is education. It was relatively good and the only thing that was worth it. Can you believe it? What child says that studying is much better than playing?”

Probably the majority in MY orphanage, I thought.

“What did you think you would win by running away?”

He stopped abruptly and began to chew slower, thoughtfully.

"A home," he smiled ironically. "But apparently every person is very busy with their affairs, they don't turn around to see you even if you're lying near a dumpster and if they notice that you see them, they look away, as if it's very shameful that they don't even tend a miserable piece of bread ... but I feel bad thinking this ... I do not know their conditions even though they see mine ... I think I am selfish for having wanted to look for a more rewarding life and this It is my punishment.” He looked at me and fell silent for a moment. "I don’t even know why I'm telling you this.”

I could already get the idea of what he had been living.

“I not agree” I crossed my arms “How long have you been since you ran away?”

“I don’t remember. Look, it wasn't a long time and I know that there are people whit worse situations than mine, but this also makes me suffer...”

I wanted to give him some confidence. Roger, the teachers and in general all the staff of the orphanage used to tell me that if I couldn’t help myself, I couldn’t help anyone else. I am a social person, but I don’t get along with people unless I want to get a benefit from them. At the Wammy’s House, I used to talk to many children, but none of them was really my friend, and Roger said that friendship was the most acclaimed, but at the same time the most neglected thing in this world ... and more corny things. But as time passed I thought about it more and more. Helping that child could prove they were wrong with me. Yes, at first everything was a personal interest. Convincing him to come with me and give him confidence meant starting an absurd chatter.

“I think you're right. You mean it's not fair ... right? You sacrificed what you had for a little freedom and this is what you obtain. This is how you see it. But,” I stood up “Look where you look, freedom and justice doesn’t exist.”

“Thank you. You don't serve to encourage.”

“I'm not trying to encourage you, although the point isn't that you give up, you can always start from scratch.”

“How am I supposed to want to start from scratch living on the street? I'd rather die.”

“You have given more life expectancy by eating all my reservation.”

“Die of hunger is very slow and tortuous. Maybe I'll wait for a train to hit me or I'll steal the wrong person, like a thug to get caught and shot.”

He made me change my face to an expression of disgust.

“I will not tolerate you talking like that. You have no idea what you say.”

“Calm down blond. I'm not serious. I honestly don't know what to do. Forget what I said about dying.”

Another great silence enveloped us. I looked at him and he looked towards the ground. I wasn't even aware that I didn't know his name.

I went back to the same process of the wet cloth but this time to clean his face. He didn't complain, he let me clean him when I brushed his hair off his forehead.

“Thank you. Now I feel a little cooler.”

“Tell me, do you believe in coincidences, destiny, luck, chance or those things?”

I could see that he was beginning to wonder if I had nothing to do and possibly that made him feel uncomfortable. However, he was willing to answer me.

“No, only those who believe they are lucky will believe in luck.

“I see. So, someone who has lived with an unfavorable situation for a long time won’t believe in luck...

“I don’t know, although if he's stupid, he'll think otherwise. That he has bad luck.

“What do you think about that we have met? Has it been a coincidence?”

He looked at me again, almost with a big question mark over his tousled hair.

“...I think it was just a probability.”

“As well as it could also have been probable that we didn’t know each other. I would have taken my backpack and you would not eat. That you went to another side and I to another. And we would never see each other.

“Yes, that could have happened. You do not believe in fate or coincidences either.”

“No, but there's a thing that catches my attention ... how do they call it? law of attraction. In which you are supposed to literally attract something that you have been thinking a lot and that you know you can get and do whatever is necessary to make it come true.”

“I had not heard about that. It sounds like magic.”

“It's not it purpose. You attract something because you do something about it, it's not like you think about what you want and you'll get it just for wanting it. You can get it if you start acting in addition to the desire... Hypothetically, what would you do to get a toy?”

He wasn't paying attention. He seemed to have fun while I talked. By then, I knew I had chosen a theme that was too incoherent for him.

“Do you always do that?”

“Do what?”

“Talk with people with such familiarity.”

I had always found great to talk to people who seemed to be alone in the street. The teachers had warned me that I could be dangerous. That someday someone would take advantage of that.

“Now that you mention it, yes.”

“If you are playing to say the first things that come to mind, then if I did the same, I would say that I wish you had been with me in that orphanage. Maybe I had not run away.”

“Seriously? I don’t know what you mean by that.”

“Yes ... and for your previous question, I would look for a way to save money... or I would ask someone, maybe I would steal it ... that's what I can think of.”

“Exact. And stop thinking about stealing. Are you kleptomaniac? Gosh.

“Sorry.”

“By the way, I'm not saying the first things that come to mind. If that were the case, it wouldn't make sense, wait until I finish asking you the questions...”

It was the first time I had thought much about a subject, in fact, I wanted to reach a condition in which he could not reject what I would propose.”

“What would you do if someone tells you that will find you a home?”

“Well, I would think that it's a lie and wants to abuse me.”

“Obviously you will not go with a pedophile. You will use logic to choose. At first you said you wanted a home. Why reject it?”

He didn't say anything, he lowered his head and moved it in denial mode

“You must know when there is an opportunity, do not let it pass or you will live thinking: «Why did not I do it? Why didn't I take a chance? Why didn't I think of ME first? » If you realize, your situation screams for you to take a chance. Anyway, you have nothing to lose.

“Why are you telling me these things?”

“If you say no, you're an imbecile. Why would you lie to others? Say «This is what I wanted, thank you for noticing. » Don't miss the opportunity to believe you'll be fine. It’s stupid. Life shouldn't work like that.

“I get it.” He was lying, He was afraid.

“That’s right... Excuse me, where is your home?

He was confused and his eyes begged me to stop acting weird.

“I think you're kidding me. I told you that I don't have a home, I escaped, and it was a silly decision and I'm dying of hunger. I'll be a kleptomaniac, but you have amnesia.”

"You're not a thief, but you're a liar. I know your house and I could guide you right now.”

“What uncomfortable thing are we playing ...?

I sighed heavily, but I was having fun.

“You stupid baby, I must be more direct with you” I said, almost tenderly. "I'm telling you that I'll take you home with me. This is what I really wanted to tell you instead of questioning you pointlessly.”

He had his grace, he spoke to me as if he already knew me, but he tended to act coy when I did something kind for him.

“…It is not a joke?” He covered his face again.

“Damn, you should see how red your face is now!” I exclaimed to divert his embarrassment. But it was the worst thing I could have said. "Are you really that surprised? I thought you already suspected it. That's why I mentioned the law of attraction, I thought it would be appropriate, I don't know if you understood me, I mean you must have spent some time wishing and looking for a home. And it must have been before you left your orphanage. You haven't told me about it, but I sense that you have done everything possible to attract that home to you.”

“What are you?”

“Oh, I'm not an angel or a fairy.”

“I didn’t mean that. Who you are? I want to know your name.”

“For the moment call me Mello, who are you?”

“So you won't tell me your name.”

“You'll discover it anyway. It's okay if you call me Mello.”

"Mello ... Mello ..." he repeated. "It sounds very sweet to someone who expresses very rough. My name is Mail.”

“¿Mail? Ok... you will come with me. And it is not a question.”

He hesitated, looked towards the lake and then began to play with his hands, which were now relatively clean.”

“Can I ask you how many people live with you? Do you think there is room for me?”

“Well, there are really many people. I don't even know the exact number; the house is bigger than you think. But don't worry.”

“I'll sleep in the living room.”

“There is more than one living room.”

“Wow! You must live in a huge mansion with all your relatives.”

I couldn't help laughing, suddenly I found him very innocent and naive

“I want to go with you Mello ... but I do not want to draw attention, my appearance right now makes me very embarrassed and I don't feel like I have enough strength to walk.”

“I understand, I'm not going to reproach you. I'd come back later anyway.”

“Do they let you leave until very late?”

“No. I, I get away from time to time. I think they're so used to it that they don't even call the police. Besides, I did not come for a walk, I must study, but this little incident happened. Thank God you didn’t eat my notes.

“Sorry. How late will we go?”

“Around nine, when everyone is sleeping”

«Everyone» were the children, because at that point Roger and the others would be very busy worrying because I didn't come back

“And if you are tired you should sleep. Right here. I will be reading in the meantime.”

“Won't you dine? I ate everything you had...”

“No problem, tomorrow I will have twice as much breakfast. I'm serious. And please consider what I told you ... don't make yourself begging, of course you want to sleep. Consider that you have someone who takes care of you right now, have you ever felt safe all these times that you have slept?”

He didn’t say anything else and lay down on the bench, looking somewhat uncomfortable because I was looking at him, so I sat on the grass with my back to him. But leaning on the bench and I started studying.

Or to pretend that I was doing it, because I couldn't stop thinking about what I had just done. I'm never friendly and much less with complete strangers and the fact that Mail was someone of my same age was no exception. I promised myself that this boy wouldn't know about my real intentions.

A few hours passed, and it was barely seven. I was already getting hungry and Mail started asking me the time every twenty minutes. He slept, woke up, asked me the time and back to sleep, or at least to close his eyes.

“You've been sitting in the dark all this time”

The light from the nearest lanterns barely reached us. I had left the notebook at six because I could no longer force my eyes and instead I looked at the night sky with a few clouds and an infinity of stars.

I stood up.

“Let's go, it's almost time and I'm sure Roger must be ripping off the little hair he has left because I have not returned.”


End file.
